France has never been as close to a financial abyss as it is now. This opinion was expressed by the country's Minister of the Interior and leader of the right-wing party “Republicans“ Bruno Retayo at the “Laboratory of the Republic“ forum in the city of Autun in the eastern part of the country.
“The situation is extremely serious“, said Retayo, whose speech was broadcast on the website of the newspaper Le Figaro.
He recalled that “54% of French public debt is in the hands of foreigners“. “This is no longer just an economic issue, but also a problem of independence and sovereignty“, the minister stressed.
On August 25, the head of the French government, François Bayrou, announced that he would put the issue of confidence in the government to a vote in the National Assembly (the lower house of parliament) on September 8. He justified his decision with the economic crisis, primarily the continued growth of the public debt. According to him, “France's public debt is increasing by 12 million euros every hour“ and has already reached 3.4 trillion euros.